If you're a fellow Oregonian, then by now you’ve probably heard about the recent Oregon DMV data breach.
This is a bad one as hackers got name, address, date of birth, driver’s license number, and the last 4 digits of Social Security number. And reportedly, it affects approximately 90% of Oregonians with state driver’s licenses and ID cards.
Grrrrr!
Apparently the breach resulted from a recent widespread attack on users of MOVEit, a common file transfer software. It’s used by government agencies nationwide, including the federal government. Personally, I want to know why Oregon DMV’s use of MOVEit got breached when apparently so many other government agency users did not.
After the Equifax breach in 2015, I froze my credit and urged my investment advisory clients (separate firm) to do the same. Here’s a blog post I wrote at the time on freezing your credit: How to Really Protect Your Credit File from Theft.
Here’s a link to a State of Oregon summary article on this recent breach: Oregon DMV Data Breach.
And here’s a link to a June 16 letter being sent to current holders of Oregon driver licenses: OCIPA Notification: Breach of ODOT Data. We should all presumably receive this in a few days.
Aside from freezing your credit, you may also want to monitor your income tax situation. If the DMV data gets sold on the Dark Web (possibly already has been)—and if nefarious characters have other databases with full Social Security numbers for cross-referencing—then they may attempt to file fraudulent tax returns using your data.
One way to help fight that possibility is to request an Identity Protection PIN (IP-PIN) from the IRS and use that when efiling your tax return. Here’s an IRS article on how to do that: Identity stolen? Request an Identity Protection PIN from the IRS
I’m not a guru on data security matters, but probably know more than the average bear. Feel free to contact me here if you'd like to discuss potential impacts on you or your small business.
The McClanahan Tax Blog is for informational purposes only. See Disclosures page.